Australians to get electronic health records

Recalling the last time you had the tetanus shot, will soon be an easy click of the computer mouse button, starting middle of 2012, says Rudd government.

A total of $467 million will be funded by the Rudd government for over the next 2 years in an effort to provide every Australian who desires an electronic health record by July 2012.

Nicola Roxon, Health Minister says, Patients will no longer have to remember every detail of their care history and retell it to every care provider they see.

The patients, she said, will be able to go for treatments anywhere across the country and allow the health professionals to take a look at their care history electronically.

The electronic health records will have the list of medication the patient is currently taking coupled with their past immunizations and test outcomes.

The E-health records introduction by mid-2012 is an significant recommendation made my the Rudd government's National Health and Hospital Reform Commission - that stresses the electronic health records must be at all times, in the control and care of the patient.

Ms Roxon says, Patients will control what is stored and decide which medical professionals can view or add to their files.

The e-health records, according to Labor, is key to its health reform plans and will increase the safety of patients, increase health results, and cut down waste and duplication.

A recenty released report revealed that e-health strategy could cut down the Australian health system expenditure by $7.6 billion per year by 2020 and also reduced the number of annual deaths by 5,000.

However, due to the increased number of privacy concerns made by the oppositions, the legislation to permit the use of individual healthcare identifier (IHI) - for patients to keep their information - is yet to be passed anytime soon.